Letter to the Editor: Mayoral Appointment

At the last Toledo City Council meeting citizens asked for multiple ways to be informed about city council meetings and events. During the meeting it was stated that the mayoral issue would not be on the City Council work session agenda, however, there has been a change and it is now on the agenda. The Toledo City Council work sessions are on the second Tuesday of every month and the meetings start at 6:15. These meetings are open to the public and everyone is invited.

Thank you Yaquina Wavelength for helping keep Toledo informed!

Franki Trujillo-Dalbey, City Councilwoman

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Letter: Community Radio Needs Volunteers

There are 45,000 voices in Lincoln County. Why do we only hear a tiny handful of them? That’s the type of question that leads people to build Community Radio stations. With all the radio signals in Lincoln County, you’d think we could regularly hear Latinos, Siletz tribal members, the homeless, people in poverty, people in need, the GLBT community? We also have a wealth of talent at the coast – writers, artists, musicians, actors. We can read their work or see them perform but rarely get to hear what’s behind their art or what keeps them performing. We’re blessed with a fascinating talent pool of seniors who have a lifetime of stories to tell.

We don’t often hear any of these voices, and we probably won’t. Why? For commercial stations – there’s no money in it. As for the non-commercial signals we hear – well, they aren’t local so they don’t serve our community. KYAQ will. We will be FROM Lincoln County and FOR Lincoln County. We just need a little help getting on the air. We need you.

Help us bring unheard voices and unexplored issues to the forefront. KYAQ needs volunteers to spread the word and build community media for Lincoln County. You will enjoy mixing and mingling at public events, engaging people in conversation and talking about grassroots radio. You might raise a little money. You might march in a parade. You might staff a booth at a fair, a festival or a fete. You might usher at a concert. We want to start volunteer training in March. Please email project@kyaq.org right now or call 541-961-7888 to tell us you want to become Radio Active!

Bridget Wolfe

(Editor’s note: Bridget Wolfe of rural Lincoln County is president of Firebare Inc., which holds an FCC construction permit to build KYAQ at 91.7 FM. Disclosure: Alan Searle, co-owner of the Wavelength, is volunteer project manager for KYAQ)

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Toledo Starts Pulling For Fire Victims

by Alan Searle

The apartment fire at 711 N. “A” Street that displaced about 20 Toledo residents early Sunday was still burning full force when the first neighbor reached out to a victim. I was standing in Toledo’s Park and Ride lot early Sunday watching firefighters try to knock down the stubborn blaze. Two men stood nearby. One of them said to the other, “You have a place to stay – with us.” The community had just begun to help. Toledo police, including off-duty personnel, were on hand making sure areas around the fire were secure, offering assistance, opening their conference room for Red Cross volunteers to assist those affected. Nearby were a small group of people watching flames and smoke consume perhaps everything they owned.

One of the victims was concerned about his neighbor who had been taken to the hospital. Officer Jeff Wagner promised he would find out how the man was doing and come back with a report. Police also opened the lower level of the Toledo Public Library as a warming area with a restroom. A volunteer walked around the neighborhood with a carafe of hot coffee.

Late Sunday afternoon, Laura Myers, owner of Cobblestone Pizza announced on Facebook she will host a meeting at her restaurant at 1:00 p.m. Monday to “brain storm ideas to help these families.” She is asking anyone interested to email her.

Earlier in the day, I had emailed someone on another matter saying the Wavelength “is not in the prediction business.” So it is ironic to write now that I expect come Monday, the neighbor-to-neighbor outreach will grow, as Toledo works to make life a little easier for some of their neighbors who may just have lived through the worst night of their lives.

If you can assist, have ideas, or can share information on relief efforts, please post them on our Facebook Page, or email us.

(Update 7:45 p.m.: Liz Fox at Newport High School is asking students if they would like to collect items to help the families).

Read more fire coverage here.

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Letter to the Editor: On Corporate Personhood

What if I told you that the campaigns for all future Presidents and Congressmen as well as State and local elections would henceforth be purchased and controlled with corporate money and the government would be run for the benefit of corporate profit?

The 2010 US Supreme Court decision “Citizens United” declared, corporations no longer need obey the same campaign donation rules they once followed. In truth, they no longer have rules. They are now allowed to spend as much money as they want to buy elections and candidates.

Politics has always been run by big money, but we the voters have been repeatedly assured by corporate media that we are still in control. Feeble attempts at “campaign finance reform” have led us to believe falsely, that big money could be reined in. Citizen’s United changed that in an astounding deviation from common sense and a terrible distortion of our Constitution’s true intent.

Corporations are now far more powerful than people in politics. Google ‘corporate personhood’ if you want the entire history. In the Citizens United case, an activist Supreme Court created a feedback loop where political clout increases profits, increasing political clout again, and so on.

Here’s some perspective. In 2008, a million people donated about 750 million dollars to the Obama campaign, the most expensive presidential race in US history. 750 million dollars is only 5% of one quarters profit of Exxon for that same year. With mere pocket change an Exxon or McDonnel-Douglas or Halliburton or Fox News or Monsanto corporation could literally buy their very own President.

That’s a terrifying thought.

Corporations have the dollars, but we have the strength of numbers. There is a grassroots movement to compel an amendment to the Constitution to outlaw ‘Corporate Personhood’ and the privileges this implies. Few of us like the idea of amending the Constitution, but it has been necessary 27 times in our past and is necessary again. There is no other legal way to reverse this decision. Cities large and small have already taken action, as have unions and civic organizations across the country, passing resolutions recognizing corporations are not persons and that money is not speech.

The Newport City Council will be asked to consider this issue February 6 at 6:00 p.m. A convincing crowd is needed for Councilors to understand how important this is. By investing an hour or two you can tell your children and grandchildren you stood up for democracy at such a dangerous time. I hope to see you there.

Stephen Farish

Waldport, Or.

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The Yaquina Wavelength Goes Dark Wednesday

The Yaquina Wavelength will join an international protest against censorship Wednesday, January 18 and will voluntarily go offline for the day. A growing number of popular websites, including Reddit, WordPress, MoveOn and Mozilla have announced they will also go dark for a time Wednesday to protest proposed Congressional legislation. The House bill known as the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and a companion Senate measure known as Protect IP Act (PIPA) would allow law enforcement to shut down websites for alleged copyright violations. The proposed laws would make it so a simple allegation of copyright infringement, with no review process, could lead to a shutdown of websites. Other large websites like Wikipedia are considering a blackout, and there is pressure being put on other giants like Google and Yahoo to join in.

We oppose SOPA and PIPA. While we strongly agree that copyright infringement should be stopped, we oppose the methods in these bill. We agree with those who say they violate the First Amendment and would have a chilling effect on free speech. Oregon Senator Ron Wyden said he will lead a filibuster against the PIPA bill, and Oregon’s Jeff Merkley is on record opposing the two bills.

We urge you to contact your member of Congress and the House and Senate leadership to oppose these measures. And please, spread the word.

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

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